Why Your CV or Resume Is Not Getting Selected and How to Improve It

I don't want to create a long debate about the topic; in this article, I am just going to address your following questions:

Is your CV not getting selected?

Have you applied to a lot of jobs but received no response?

Is the problem really with your CV?

Why CV/Resume Is So Important?

Your CV or resume is so important because it is the first step, or a door, toward your selection. The first thing a recruiter checks is your CV or resume. If it has some issues or is missing something, then your entry into the hiring process will be stopped.

Reasons Your CV/Resume Not Getting Selected

Do you want to know the reasons why your CV/Resume is not getting selected? Then look at the important reasons below:

1. Raw Applications

If you don't want to eat raw food, then why do you send raw applications to jobs?

Its very simple:

If your food is not cooked well then no one would like to eat. The same scenario applies to your CV as well.

One of the major reasons is that you apply to a job without even completely reading the job description and send your CV or resume without checking whether it matches the job description, even by 50 percent. In this case, your CV/resume will never be selected.

2. One CV/Resume for Multiple Jobs

Another big reason behind your CV rejection is that you have only one CV/Resume and apply to multiple jobs with it.

For example,

A person named Gibs has a CV for Web development and he applies to data science and machine learning jobs with that CV. Definitely, Gibs's CV will not be selected.

But if you are only specialized in web development but want to apply for machine learning, this is a separate case. In this scenario, you need to mention some certifications (if you have any) or gain some experience to include in your CV before applying.

3. Mismatch CV/Resume & Job Description

This is a very common reason, and more than 70 percent of people do this. Let's understand the scenario: A person is applying for a web development job and is actually working in web development, but the requirements mentioned in the job description are not included in their CV/resume, maybe because they applied with an old CV. Definitely, their CV will not be selected.

4. Lack of Knowledge About ATS Tools

If you are not aware about the ATS, then don't worry I am going to describe it.

ATS stands for Applicant Tracking System, a software tool used by recruiters in the hiring process.

Why can it be the reason behind not getting our CV/resume selected? Because recruiters scan your CVs using ATS against the job description and shortlist the candidates.

How does the ATS work? This is a long explanation, but simply put, the recruiter or hiring person gives your CV and the job description to the ATS, and it shows the matching score between your CV and the job description. Apart from that, it also provides support for hard matching, like when the hiring person can specify keywords that must be contained in your CV.

So, it's clear that if ATS gives a higher score, it means your CV matches the job description well, and if the score is lower, the opposite is true. That's actually the reason why you've applied to multiple jobs but received no response.

How to Improve Your CV/Resume to Get It Selected

As we discussed the four reasons above, we can now easily improve your chances of getting selected. To make improvements, we need to focus on the following points:

Understand the job description carefully.
Create the latest CV/Resume according to your current expertise.
Make a separate CV/Resume for each job.
Become familiar with the ATS tool to understand how it works.
Compare your CV/Resume with the job description manually.
Add any missing skills or technologies to your CV/Resume according to the job description.
Ask AI (use any model) to give you a score by providing the job description and your CV/Resume.
If the matching score is less than 60 percent, increase it to at least 70 percent.

Conclusion

If we want our CV to get selected, we should not send applications without analyzing the job description and the CV. Please don't apply with an old CV/Resume. You should create a fresh CV/Resume if the old one is too outdated and does not contain all of your expertise. You should not apply to different job domains with a CV/Resume from another domain.

Study how the ATS tool works. Try to get the maximum matching score between the job description and your CV/Resume.

The recommended matching score between the job description and the CV/Resume is 80 percent, but 70 percent is also fine.

Here's a really awesome template that you can follow to create your own professional Resume/CV.

💡 Pro Tip: Treat your job application the same way you treat food. Spend sufficient time, do research, and then apply.